What is the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov up to?

Claims that the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov will be deployed to Syria to fight Islamic State have been met with scepticism.

According to TASS, a military-diplomatic source in Moscow said on Saturday:

“The General Staff has prepared a plan for involvement of the deck aircraft in delivering strikes on terrorist groups in the Syrian Arab Republic, where the crews will practice taking off the carrier to deliver strikes on ground targets.

The Admiral Kuznetsov, will be close to the Syrian shore so that the deck aircraft have enough fuel to complete the military tasks and return back.”

“Admiral Kuznetsov has never seen combat, nor would she be of much practical military use. The 55,000-ton carrier has a bow ramp, not steam catapults, requiring her aircraft to shed weight before taking off. This means her planes will go into combat with less fuel or bombs than the ground-based fighters Russia has already deployed to Syria.”

Just because their carrier uses short take off and arrested landing rather than the techniques used by British & American carriers, in no way implies that the Russian ship has “a mission different from that of either the United States Navy carriers or those of the Royal Navy”.

That’s hogwash.

And US land based aircraft have longer ranges than US carrier jets, so what? The US uses both.